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In this study, the authors examine consumer attitudes toward a professional soccer club’s proenvironmental initiatives and evaluate whether key themes are consistent with those found in previous research of fans in different sporting contexts.

The authors analyzed empirical material provided by 147 highly identified supporters of a Major League Soccer team. Using template analysis, the authors compared codes, categories and themes with those previously identified in a reference group of National Football League (NFL) fans.

Twenty-three preliminary codes, nine categories and four themes were established by the researchers. Three themes – Considering Environmental Action, Business Insights and Impacting the Fan Experience – were all consistent with the NFL reference group. A fourth theme, Public Visibility, focused on the possibility that the club’s proenvironmental initiatives could provide a competitive advantage over rival cities and positively influence local programming and behaviors.

The results of this study support the notion that fan characteristics may differ across various demographic and structural contexts and fans’ recognition that a club could leverage its community standing to promote proenvironmental action.

The paper investigates the factors influencing spectators’ adoption of digital (mobile) ticketing by expanding the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM; Davis, 1989) to include two variables overlooked in previous ticketing research: (1) trust of digital ticketing and (2) willingness to pay convenience fees. The study provides information on consumer behavior that may aid sports managers’ decision-making.

Through a paper-and-pencil survey of high school American football spectators (N = 523) over 12 games, the study examined perceived ease of use, perceived usefulness, the trust of digital ticketing, willingness to pay convenience fees and their effects on spectators’ intention to use digital ticketing.

Trust of digital ticketing, willingness to pay a convenience fee and the perceived ease of use were found to influence the perceived usefulness of the technology, which, in turn, had a significant effect on the intention to use. Willingness to pay fees also had a direct effect on intention.

Although every intention was made to ascertain a diverse sampling of schools (urban vs. suburban, large vs. small), it is worth noting that the sample location may be a limitation for the overall applicability.

The manuscript includes practical applications for marketers and ticket sales staff. Digital (mobile) ticketing is on the rise. As segments like high school athletics adopt the technology, spectators’ evaluation of digital ticketing must be considered, given its impact on intentions to use.

The findings support the use of willingness to pay convenience fees and trust of digital ticketing as considerations in the TAM for understanding digital ticketing.

This paper examines the effects of advertising type and antecedents of attitude towards advertising in general (AG) on individuals' responses to advertising in a sports broadcast setting. Both AG antecedents and advertising type were assessed using Brackett and Carr's (2001) model. Our results indicate that individual responses to advertising vary according to the type of advertising (television commercials, virtual ads by location).

The usage of sport stadia for public service is increasingly common and may come in different forms. In the COVID-19 pandemic, this included sport entities hosting mass COVID-19 vaccinations at their stadiums. The purpose of this study was to examine the branding effects of a COVID-19 mass vaccination center as communicated by (1) a sport entity (i.e. stadium and its two teams) and (2) the public.

The authors analyzed the entity's social media messages related to the mass vaccination center for the three groups, the stadium and its two sports team tenants (N = 48) while comparing the public's social media content about the vaccination center (N = 187). An empirical material coding analysis was conducted.

The sport entity's posts revealed 12 codes, five categories and two themes communicated about their brand: In this together–community impact and showcasing brand attributes. The public posts analysis revealed 21 codes, eight categories and four themes, creating brand awareness, establishing/reaffirming brand attributes, affective response and in this together–community response.

The identification of the two organization themes and four public themes provided an initial examination of the mass vaccination efforts' impact on the sport entity's brand. With the rise of stadia being utilized as public service venues (e.g. voting centers and disaster shelters), the results of the study can provide guidance to communicating the host team's brand during these times. Results also suggest the public perception of such service reflected positive opportunities for brand exposure and subsequent effects for the teams.

The purpose of this paper is to modify and extend the Sport Video Game Motivation Scale (SVGMS).

The original scale included seven factors (Competition, Diversion, Enjoyment, Fantasy, Interest with Sport, Social Interaction, and Sport Knowledge Application) with a total of 20 items. Initial modification and revision were conducted through a review of literature, adoption of pertinent theories, and a test of content validity by a panel of experts and a sample of sport video game (SVG) players. The scale was modified with additional items and three additional motivation factors, resulting in ten factors with 34 items. The revised SVGMS was administered to gamers (n=232) who played two popular SVGs.

In total, eight factors were determined in a confirmatory factor analysis (Competition, Diversion, Enjoyment, Fantasy, Social Interaction, Sport Interest, Sport Knowledge Application, and Team Identification).

Overall, the modified SVGMS showed good validity and reliability, providing good measurement evidence for the scale to be adopted for future investigations of motivations associated with sport video gamers.

Since 2014, “sport for all” has been promoted as a new national strategy in China, which injects powerful dynamism and vitality for its development in numerous aspects. However, there has been very little feedback on sport service provision in community, and the satisfaction level of community participants is largely unmeasured. To promote physical and mental health of residents and form a stronger foundation of sport culture, more attention should be directed to community sports. The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of community-sport service provisions on participants’ satisfaction and, in turn, on their sport participation behavior.

Community-sport program participants in China (n=576) responded to a survey measuring the proposed concepts.

Structural equation modeling analyses revealed that community-sport services in the areas of sport facility, grassroots sport organizations and sport activity programs had strong influences on participant satisfaction and, in turn, their desire for participation, which highlighted the demand for high-quality sport service provision by community.

The study contributed to the literature by proposing two clear dimensions (core sport service and peripheral sport service) for the measurement of public sport service provision in community sports. A second theoretical contribution of the study relates to the clarification of the relationship between the two dimensions of community-sport service provision (both core and peripheral services) and community participants’ satisfaction levels.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate how simultaneous use of devices such as personal computers, tablets and smartphones impacts the sponsors that receive brand integration during the broadcasts. Advances in technology now allow fans to consume broadcasts of televised events almost anywhere via personal computers, tablets and smartphones. These devices are also frequently utilized as “second screens” to communicate with fellow consumers on social media, access additional content or otherwise multitask during televised consumption.

An initial study served to test the applicability of the theoretical framework of a dual coding theory in this new context, followed by a 3 × 2 between-subjects design utilized to advance understanding of the influence of second screens on brand awareness of the sponsors of televised events.

Results demonstrated that both brand recognition and recall were reduced by second screen activity across nearly all audio or visual consumption experiences. Further, while second screen use in an audiovisual setting did not interfere with consumers’ ability to recognize brands, indicating they were able to multitask and were not distracted, it inhibited their ability to recall brands from memory. This result provides evidence that second screen use may interfere with elaborative rehearsal and reduce cognitive capacity.

Given that marketers are investing more resources than ever to achieve brand integration during televised events, these findings suggest that brands face challenges in achieving a requisite return on their investments.

This study represents the first empirical investigation of the impact of consumers’ use of second screens in the academic literature, and has important implications for the sponsors of televised events.